Crypto enthusiasts are chilled to the bone as the majority of analysts forecast a crypto winter. Apparently, it is even scarier to investors than a bear market. A crypto winter means a sharp slump, followed by months of market doldrums.
The last crypto winter memorably befell the market in late 2017 and early 2018 when bitcoin slumped by as much as 80% from all-time highs. David Marcus, the former head of crypto at Facebook-parent Meta, insists that a crypto winter has already arrived. "It’s during crypto winters that the best entrepreneurs build the better companies. This is the time again to focus on solving real problems vs. pumping tokens", he tweeted. Even taking into account the fact that bitcoin was able to recoup some of its losses and investors stopped dumping this asset, things can only get worse in the future.
Notably, not all analysts are so pessimistic about bitcoin’s outlook. Nadya Ivanova, chief operating officer at the BNP Paribas-affiliated tech research firm L’Atelier, believes that it is early to talk about a crypto winter. She stresses that the market is "now in a cooling off period." "Over the last year - especially with all the hype in this market — a lot of developers seem to have been distracted by the easy gains from speculation in NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and other digital assets. A cooling off period might actually be an opportunity to start building the fundamentals of the market," Ivanova pointed out.
The founder of Quantum Fintech Group, Harry Yeh, suggests that now, the crypto market is preparing for a super cycle. Therefore, bitcoin may skyrocket by 900% in the near future. According to his forecasts, this year, the digital asset may soar to $400,000 per coin.
